bring down the costofhealthcarewithouthurting seniors and other americans who depend on it. and i'm willing to make more entitlement spending cuts on top of the $1 trillion in spending cuts i signed into law last year. >> reporter: his remarks came one day after house speaker john boehner announced the talks were stalled. >> well, this isn't a progress report, because there's no progress to report. >> reporter: his democratic counterpart, nancy pelosi, blames boehner for the stalemate. >> what they offered in return was an empty letter, lacking in specifics. >> reporter: such is the state of negotiations 23 days before the deadline, when federal income tax rates will revert to higher clinton era levels, 2% payroll tax cuts will expire, and long-term unemployment benefits will dry up for over 2 million americans who have been out of work for six months or more. on saturday, boehner did not allow a compromise on tax hike for top earners, somewhere between today's 35% rate and the clinton era's 39.6%. >> there are a lot of things that are possible, but to put the revenue to the preside